Royal debacle!

Item: Serenade of the Seas
Rating: 3.5
Author: joyfulcruiser

Serenade of the Seas Cruise Review

joyfulcruiser

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 8

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5

11 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 09, 2019

Ship: Serenade of the Seas

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Puerto Limon (port) needs much improvement. The process to valid/stamp our passports was unorganized and un---nerving.

Embarkation

1 out of 5

Very disappointed how Royal Caribbean handled what they (a rep from a management team) called a possible last minute change by Columbia and/or Panama not allowing passengers already fully checked in online using their birth certificate only to board the ship without a passport. What??? We flew from Texas to Florida after paying thousands for this 11 night cruise, hotel stays and transportation!?! Total unprofessionalism and disregard. Not cool. This nightmare is not over.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Several of us coincidentally displayed flu-like symptoms after having lobster on formal night, day 10.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Ship tip

Not a lot of venues/shows to choose from.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5

Cartagena, Colombia

4 out of 5

Colon, Panama

2 out of 5

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

3 out of 5

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

2 out of 5

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

Escorted off by Royal Caribbean staff at 6:45am after receiving a letter from RC employee "Silvia" stating those of us who joined the ship mid cruise are required by Customs to disembark early to be cleared. What? After all we went through to meet the ship amid their debacle. Really???

4 Comments

gbold 4 years ago

Royal Caribbean left approximately 200 passengers stranded at the Fort Lauderdale terminal because of the last minute change regarding all passengers being required to have passports. We completed our online check in on Royal Caribbean website and were informed that we were successfully checked in with our travel documents being birth certificates and photo ID. Once we arrived at the cruise terminal, we are suddenly informed that something changed and all passengers must have passports. it was a crazy and confusing situation at the terminal. Police were called and passengers were escorted out of the terminal and left standing and stranded outside of the terminal doors. No access to restrooms or water. Finally terminal staff give us a printout of an email from Royal Caribbean. No one from Royal Caribbean ever came to say anything to us.

Thumbs Up 1

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road62 4 years ago

I don't have all of the details but there was a communication problem between the cruise line and the passengers for the passport requirement. I sat at dinner with someone whose companion was not able to sail because of lacking a passport. In this day and age with many ports moving toward requiring a passport, I would not recommend sailing without one even on these closed loop voyages just to avoid this problem. I got my passport for this cruise even though I didnt think it was required. Glad I did. And I am sorry you were negatively impacted.

Thumbs Up 0

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kellies26 5 years ago

If you join mid-cruise you go have to go through customs differently. Has nothing to do with cruise line! You really can’t travel without a passport, bad idea...

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15mustang 5 years ago

If this was a change by a country not sure what you expected Royal to do. More information needed. This is why we never cruise without a passport.

Thumbs Up 0

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Other reviews of this sailing

Royal Was Almost Perfect

Okay cuise...good destination and helpful staff. Move a lot !

Enjoyed Caribbean cruise